Xi3's Piston Will be a Windows PC, its Maker Reminds the World

The maker of the Xi3 Piston supposed "Steam Box" PC games machine has clarified its relationship with Valve, after the game publisher denied having anything to do with the mini PC hardware startup.

In a lengthy statement issued to Kotaku, Xi3 reiterated the fact that Valve invested in the company to help develop the miniature PC, although it agrees that there's currently no ongoing relationship between the two companies, but says: "just because Valve may not 'currently' have any 'involvement with any product of (ours)' doesn't mean that such involvement won't exist in the future."

Xi3 elaborated a bit more, pointing out that there's some incorrect "assumption" that the Piston is the "official" Steam Box. Which it isn't. Furthermore, it reminds people not to expect the Piston to arrive running any custom Steam interface, saying:

"To be clear, the Piston Console will ship initially with a Windows operating system specifically because that's where the vast bulk of game software and computer gamers are today. That said, the Piston Console can also run Linux (and other operating systems), which means it can support the Linux-version of Steam."

Although Valve's Doug Lombardi put it much simpler, saying: "Valve began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year, but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs." [Kotaku]